Graphics bug - pics included

[pnorrell 4]

This is a problem that has been happening with my cities from time to time, ever since I got the game 3 years ago. I have never figured out what causes it, nor have I ever seen anyone else mention it, but just in case someone knows what it is and how to prevent it, let me show you what it is.

This pic provides a good illustration. To the left of the avenue bridge all is well. To the right... well... I don't know how to describe it. It's like all the props are missing...

No street props, no canal water, no cars or other features (no traffic shows either, when the game is unpaused).

It's interesting what is left and what disappears. The pic below is the CSX Urban Waste Tech. One of the buildings and the smoke from the chimneys remains, but otherwise nothing but base/overlay textures...

Another common feature are the missing arrows to neighbor connections (in this part of the city only - the rest are fine). Note also the missing roundabout prop...

Here's a shot of the Yeungling Brewery. You can see that the lot has been stripped down to just the building model and the ground textures. The blank lot to the left is one of goober's small warehouses. Look also at the monorail shops - the shell is there but the storefronts are gone. Again missing neighbor connection arrows and road props too...

Here's a school complex with Uplands Gymnasium at the center. Everything but the models and ground textures is gone again. This affects Maxis content too - to the right of the school are basketball and tennis courts. At the corner is the small library. Check out the police station - no parked cars or fence. Also interesting is the soccer field - one of the goals vanished but not the other...

This is another look at the line dividing the corrupted area from the rest of the city, which is completely normal. On the right side of the avenue, everything is fine. On the left, everything's been stripped. Interesting that the cycledogg trees seem to survive.

A look at what some places should look like and what they look like with the bug...

Goober bus stop  

T intersections

+ intersection

Avenue

Area around highway neighbor connection/avenue intersection

Some of the stripped-down industry

Finally, here is a wide-angle view of the whole city. The avenue dividing the corrupt area from the rest runs the entire length of the city, with neighbor connections at each end (marked by the yellow Xs). Everything to the left of the avenue is screwy. If you look towards the top you can see the missing canal water from the first picture...

OK - sorry if I overdid it on the pics but I wanted to post this here in an attempt to clearly define and describe this problem, the way you would an unknown disease. I am interested to know if anyone has ever had this same thing happen and, more important, if anyone knows how to prevent it.

It is this problem that is the main reason I keep backups of my last three (!!!) city save files. I regularly have to use one of them to overwrite a city like this and yet, as in this case, sometimes that effort is still not enough. Because this problem is only on this strip to one side of the city, I didn't notice it in time and all three of my backups have it...

Thanks for taking the time to look at this. I'm looking forward to your comments and ideas...

[hjanfield 0]

That looks exactly how my game looks when the graphics quality (in-game options) is not set to High. Shouldn't be a sporadic thing though, except for at different zoom levels.

Check it out.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You seem to have many plugins.  If you have a new set, try withdrawing them to an out-of-game folder, and see if the problem goes away.

Plugin conflicts are becoming more common now as the number increases.

[CaptCity 4,669]

I have had issues like this in some of my cities, but it didn't seem to be as 'spotty' as yours. Are you saying the problems only occur in certain sections of the city while other parts are perfectly normal, even with identical lots? If that is the case, that is something I have not experienced. Mine have always been widespread, and seemed to be one of three things (other than the game's Graphics settings)...

1) Missing or outdated dependencies that I thought I had but didn't.

2) Conflict with floral modds and park lots. Probably had too many installed and some were overriding others and causing problems (even with Maxis lots).

3) Mistakingly having more than one terrain/floral/tree modd installed.

The second two were discovered by moving Plugins in and out of the game (as N_O_Body mentioned) to narrow it down.

Just a few thoughts. Good luck.

CC

[pnorrell 4]

Thanks all for you attention... Herein lies the mystery of this particular "disease." I've tried the moving plugins technique to identify conflicts or bad files - that doesn't do it. At least it doesn't restore the missing details and since this seems to happen only when the city is saved (in other words, it looks normal while playing and the bug only shows up after the city's been saved, exited and reloaded the next time) it's not really possible to find the problem using this technique.

In any case, since it dates way back to when I first started playing the game, I don't think it's related to any plugin. My plugins folder has gone from 0 to 3.3GB over the past 3 years and the problem has remained a regular occurrence. Don't think it's related to detail settings either, since the majority of the city is fine and this only happens in one clearly defined part. I play with all detail settings on high, by the way, and have as close to a supercomputer running the game as anyone.

Another interesting detail is that this same bug has happened while playing on two different machines, with different processors, RAM and video cards. I used to think my old computer struggled with the fully-populated large city tiles and couldn't draw all the graphics details in time for the save. I don't think I can blame a weak computer anymore and it still happens...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

With all those plugins, you are wandering about in a bleeding edge of things.  It would appear that something isn't gettting saved properly.  What O/S are you cunning, and do you have lots of storage?

A thought about the funny saves:  How often to you defragment your disk?  This should be done at least weekly.

[CaptCity 4,669]

Another wandering thought...

Two different computers...with or without plugins...hmmm. Have you tried a reinstall? Maybe a bad game disk?

CC